News & Commentary

December 26, 2017

Jim Hackett, CEO of Ford Motor Company, apologized to Ford employees last week following accusations of sexual harassment in two Chicago plants to which the plants responded inadequately.  Hackett published an open letter expressing a zero tolerance policy for workplace harassment.  The letter was published in response to a New York Times profile of rampant misconduct at the two plants.

Employers Are Looking for Job Candidates in the Wrong Places” according to Lolade Fadulu of the Atlantic.  For example, Fadulu points out that there is a shortage of health-management workers in D.C. and of retail workers in Philadelphia.  The problem is exacerbated by employers’ unwillingness to view nontraditional education as credible.  Trump’s administration, including Education Secretary Betsy Devos, has emphasized apprenticeships as a means of promoting employment opportunities.  Along similar lines, Fadulu urges employers to look beyond attainment of a bachelor’s degree and to give more weight to skills-based training.

The LA Times covers union interest in organizing the legal marijuana industry.  Both the United Farm Workers and United Food and Commercial Workers have expressed interest.  According to some estimates, the recreational marijuana industry (CA voters approved recreational marijuana sales—there was already a legal medical marijuana market—last year) could employ more than 100,000 workers.

At the Atlantic, Vahini Vara asks if unions can stop the far right.  Using the German election as reference, Vara draws parallels and lays out the implications for U.S. politics.

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